India's real estate industry anticipates sustained investment-driven growth, with the introduction of innovative investment instruments like REITs and a rising trend of companies embracing professional management, bolstering its outlook.

Given their complexity and capital-intensive nature, real estate businesses can be impacted by any economic or business turbulence. To address industry challenges, organisations must embrace new technologies, enhance operational efficiencies, and reassess their business strategies.

The Grant Thornton Bharat advantage

  • Industry understanding
  • Strategic approach
  • Insights-backed solutions
  • Industry understanding
    Industry understanding
    We offer diverse perspectives backed by technical knowledge and awareness of operational intricacies.
  • Strategic approach
    Strategic approach
    Our approach is strategically aligned with the evolving, complex, and multifaceted nature of the real estate sector.
  • Insights-backed solutions
    technological-intervention.png
    Our team delivers resilient growth navigation services across your entire business lifecycle.

Digital revamp for a real estate company

Problem statement
A leading commercial real estate company was facing significant challenges in process efficiencies, system standardisation, and manual work within its core and support functions. These issues were attributed to rapid inorganic growth over the past 3-5 years. The leadership recognised the need for digital intervention at an enterprise level to enhance effectiveness and efficiency, making digital a strategic priority at the core of the company.
Our Solution
We facilitated boardroom sessions with leadership to establish a digital vision, business objectives, and a comprehensive digital strategy, using proprietary questionnaires and interviews. A digital maturity assessment helped gauge the current state and identify key digital opportunities. We assessed the enterprise business model to discover new growth avenues and conducted detailed process reviews across 18 areas. We defined business journeys (Purchase to Pay, Quote to Cash, Hire to Retire, Record to Report, Plan to Exit) to pinpoint process improvements, design a Digital Operating Model blueprint, and develop a thorough business case and roadmap for digital implementation.
Impact
The client achieved a robust, value-based digital maturity assessment, formulating a clear strategic vision with digital integration. They mapped detailed business journeys to harness digital for end-to-end value, and built a comprehensive digital portfolio across value creation, delivery, and sustenance. This identified over 300 digital opportunities in areas like Web3.0, automation, AI/ML, and system optimisations. A two-year digital roadmap with a clear implementation plan and quarterly investment cases was established.

Redevelopment and Joint Development Arrangement (JDA)

Problem statement
A leading Mumbai-based business conglomerate with interests in real estate needed to redevelop a building owned by a charitable trust, adhering to Mumbai's Development Control Regulations 33(7). The building was occupied by an equal mix of tenants and licensees. The goal was to redevelop the property ensuring all occupants received ownership units without compromising their rights, while minimizing cash outlays and optimizing for tax and regulatory efficiency, including stamp duty.
Our Solution
We proposed multiple solutions to meet the client's needs, with the selection of a hybrid structure combining a Joint Development Arrangement and a construction contract. This strategy overcame the limitations of each standalone option. The finalized hybrid structure allowed existing occupants to receive ownership units, preserving their tenant or licensee rights. The developer was compensated with additional units for bearing the redevelopment costs, thus addressing the client's concerns about cash flow.
Impact
The proposed structure received positive feedback from the client team and is currently under consideration by all stakeholders, indicating a promising step forward in the redevelopment project.

Real Estate Investment Trust

Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) is an investment pooling vehicle incorporated as a ‘trust’ to invest in revenue generating real estate assets.

Small & Medium REITs (SM REITs)

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has revised the regulations governing Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) to introduce Small and Medium REITs (SM REITs).

Meet our leaders

Shabala Shinde

Mumbai

+91 22 6626 2600